Lucky Break

by Michael Logan

TV Guide, April 15-21, 2000


Jonathan Jackson, the former star of GH, talks about playing a heroin addict, abstinence, and the chance to be the next Anakin Skywalker.

High Park, a sweet, idyllic middle-class area of Toronto, could easily pass for one of those sitcom neighborhoods that was home to the Nelsons or the Cleavers. But today all hell is breaking loose. ABC is here filming "Trapped In A Purple Haze" - a TV movie depicting the growing use of heroin among bourgeois teens - and the calm that usually envelops this cozy enclave is shattered by the cries of a kid in severe drug withdrawal.

That kid, Max Hanson, is played by 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson, a rising star who has come to specialize in playing tortured souls. As Luke and Laura's son Lucky on the ABC soap General Hospital (a role that won him three Daytime Emmys and currently has him up for a fourth), Jackson went to pieces when he found out that his parents romance began with a rape. As Michelle Pfeiffer's son in "The Deep End Of The Ocean," he was wracked with guilt over the kidnapping of his baby brother. In his next big-screen venture, "The Smiling Suicide Club," he plays an Irish lad who tries to kill himself. The irony of all this is that Jackson is regarded as one of the most well-adjusted, clean-living, deeply religious young actors in Hollywood.

"I don't go looking to play screwed-up characters," Jackson says during a break on the PH set. "But I do look for roles that have realities and complexities that interest me. I'm not into the teen horror flick thing. I'm not into playing a variation of me. I'm looking for the big challenges."

And PH provides that. Jackson, his skin whitened by makeup, has been shooting a gruesome cold-turkey sequence that takes place in the bathroom of the Hanson home. The film, which costars JoBeth Williams as Max's domineering Mom, and Carly Pope (Popular) as a girlfriend who lures him into drugs, does not shy away from the details of heroin addiction (vomiting, weight loss, convulsions, even death), and in doing so, it pushes the boundaries of what might be considered entertainment. "But we would lose the impact if we softened the ugliness of the heroin lifestyle," says Jackson. "The real risk would be NOT showing it. Kids and parents need to know the reality."

Jackson, who is avidly antidrug and a proponent of sexual abstinence, never gets near that razor's edge on which so many of his peers teeter. "I have no interest in getting wasted with a bunch of actors on a Saturday night," he says. "I like having a blast and remembering it the next day." US Magazine recently graded the credibility quotient of several self-proclaimed virgins, with Jackson scoring 10 out of 10 (alas, Enrique Iglesias, L.A. Laker A.C. Green and tennis queen Anna Kournikova did not fare so well). He takes the attention, and the kidding, with a major grain of salt. "These days, it's politically correct not to express one's moral beliefs," Jackson says. "But when you say you're going to wait until you're married to have sex, people have a problem with it. I don't get it, but I don't care."

Raised in Vancouver, Washington, Jackson is the youngest of three kids (brother Richard Lee, 20 is also an actor and sister Candice 22, is a law student). He credits his stability to his parents - Ricky Lee, a physician, and Jeanine, a homemaker - and to his strong spirituality. "A relationship with God was always innate in my upbringing." He says, "But there was a definite shift for me in 1997. It was spawned by a bad relationship (he hints it was romantic but offers no specifics) where I got really hurt. Through the pain, I came to a realization that I can't depend on other people for my peace and happiness. I came to know who God is and who I am."

Tony Geary, who played his father on GH (Jackson quit the soap last May after six years), recalls "I once asked Jonathan, "What the hell is wrong with you? Why aren't you rebelling like other kids?" And he said, 'I do rebel, in my way.' And it's true. He doesn't have to stomp his feet to make a statement. He does it by being centered and moral." Adds JoBeth Williams: "Jonathan is so alive, so full of incredible inner stuff! It's going to make him a very big star." But chances are, Jackson's future will not include "Star Wars: Episode II." In an E! Online poll, he was the top choice of fans to play the next Anakin Skywalker, and Newsweek boldly reported that he has a lock on the part, but Jackson says he never met with anyone associated with the film and doubts he ever will. His agent has publicly claimed that the Newsweek hoo-ha rubbed George Lucas the wrong way and spoiled Jackson's chances. "If that's so, that's OK," says the actor. "It would have been fun, but there are a lot of other really cool projects out there. My life is working out the way it's supposed to in all ways. I'm on the right path."

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